Of Shamans and Sufis
An Account of a “Magico-Religious”
Muslim Mystic’s Career
Frank J. Korom
Despite the fact that the noted anthropologist Michael Taussig
(1989) claimed that shamanism is a contrived category created by EuroAmerican academics out of a pastiche of practices around the world, the
study of the subject is still going quite strong, as indicated by the review
article written by Atkinson (1992) just about a decade ago. However, less
studied is the relationship between shamanism and Islam.1 While not quite
comparable in essence, the mystical branch of Islam known as Suism does
* Research for this chapter was generously supported by a grant from the American
Institute for Sri Lankan Studies in 2010 and 2011. Portions of it were published earlier in
Korom 2011. Frank Korom is Professor of Religion and Anthropology in the Department
of Religion at Boston University. His publications include Village of Painters: Narrative
Scrolls from West Bengal (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2006) and he Anthropology of
Performance: A Reader (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013).
1. Some exceptions do, of course, exist (Centlivres 1971; Sidky 1990), especially studies
of Central Asian religious phenomena associated with Turkic people, following the lead of
Köprülü (1929), who irst argued that the similarities between Suis and shamans led to the
mass conversion of the region’s people. See also Seleznev and Dudoignon (2000). However, Amitai-Preiss (1999) tempers the argument somewhat in suggesting that the Suis
who inluenced the elite were, in fact, the opposite of their ecstatic counterparts. his notwithstanding, the author admits that both types of Suism (that is, sober and intoxicated)
played a role in bringing about the successful conversion of a majority of the population.
147
148 | Of Shamans and Sufis
indeed include among its practitioners charismatic individuals who perform
many of the same functions as shamans do in their own societies. Winkelman (1990; 1992) terms these shaman-like individuals “magico-religious”
healers in his ambitious cross-cultural studies of shamans and other healers (medicine men, witch doctors, mediums, mystics, and so forth) found
throughout the world.
Although no universal definitions of the Tungus-derived terms “shaman” and “shamanism” exist upon which all scholars agree, Siikala (1978)
geographically confines the phenomenon to the Eurasian and Subarctic
regions, while Peters and Price-Williams (1980) experientially deine
it more broadly as all magico-religious practitioners who utilize trance,
which Eliade (1964) refers to sensuously as ecstasy. Winkelman himself
cautiously limits it to hunter and gatherer societies.2 As such societies make
the transition to a sedentary, agricultural lifestyle with political integration
into stratiied society, he states, shamans too transform into other sorts of
magico-religious healers (Winkelman 1990, 310). Yet all of these magicoreligious healers share one fundamental experience that is common, which
is an ecstatic state achieved by soul light. We might call such ecstasy an
altered state of consciousness, which Winkelman (1990, 311) argues can be
achieved in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to, auditory driving (chanting, singing, or drumming), fasting, drug use, austerity, isolation,
sleep deprivation, seizures, collapses, or lapses into unconsciousness.
It is my contention that, with the possible exception of drug use, the igure with whom I am concerned here utilized all of these same techniques
to achieve ecstatic union with his God, and thereby was given the power
to heal in return.3 As I hope to make clear below, Suis are not shamans, for
they share diferent cosmologies. Nor do all Suis embody the same traits
as the subject at the center of this chapter does. However, for comparative
purposes, it is useful to indicate some of the similarities that do exist on the
2. For a valuable overview of the ield of studying shamanism, see Dubois 2009, in
which he wisely avoids deining the term in favor of arguing that it comprises a coherent
worldview that deserves to be called a “religion.”
3. I say “possible” because my subject smoked tobacco incessantly for most of his life.
While many would not recognize it as a “drug” in the conventional sense, it is oten used in
shamanic ritual to bring about trance and ecstasy, sometimes in combination with alcohol
or psychotropic substances. See Von Gernet 2000.
frank Korom | 149
phenomenological level, if for no other reason than typological and comparative purposes.
In what follows, then, I wish to outline a much larger project that traces
the emergence and career of a charismatic Sui folk preacher who put his
extraordinary powers to work to found his own spiritual organization ater
his public career began in Sri Lanka in the 1940s and ended in the United
States in the 1980s.4 he igure with whom I am concerned here is Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (ral.), a charismatic individual who
rose to prominence on the basis of his exemplary actions. Max Weber
(1948, 267–301, 323–62) used the term “exemplary” to refer to an extraordinary individual who is, as Charles Lindolm (1998, 210) puts it, a “living
receptacle of a static, immanent, and abstract essence.” he exemplar helps
human beings escape the trappings of this world to achieve a desired state of
transcendence, then ultimately union with a higher power. Exemplary religion is thus the “natural home of charisma” (Lindolm 1998, 210). Bawa, the
paternal title by which he is most oten addressed, belongs to this particular
brand of Suism that emphasizes the intercessory powers of a human being
who has mastered skills not easily acquired by average people for the purpose of aiding others. His exemplary deeds eventually led to his elevation
in status to qutb, literally the vertical pole that allows lesser individuals the
possibility to move upward along its spiritual axis to achieve a state of gnosis
that brings the seeker closer to the goal of transcendental union (Korom,
2012b).
Despite his eventual fame, Bawa’s origins and much of his past remain
largely enigmatic, which is part of his mysterious appeal for many of those
who followed him down the path to enlightenment during his remarkable
forty-four year public career. Due to his obscurity, one cannot write a traditional history of such a figure based on empirical documentation, for
virtually nothing concrete exists, as I discovered during eight months of
ieldwork in Sri Lanka on a vain quest to uncover written sources to reconstruct his life. Instead, what I recorded were numerous narratives about
miracles Bawa performed on the island prior to his departure for the United
States in the 1970s. In my speciic case, one must therefore rely heavily on
4. Tentatively titled Guru Bawa and the Making of a Transnational Sui Family, my projected book will be the irst in-depth study of this sage and his followers. For a representative sample of his teachings, see Narayan and Sawney 1999.
150 | Of Shamans and Sufis
personal testimony and eyewitness accounts, which oten have a tendency
to become embellished over time, only adding to the mystique surrounding
the charismatic individual. Such stories, however, make it quite clear that
one of the main reasons this saint rose to prominence was his ability to heal
and to perform other miracles, which he downplayed later in his life but continued to do up until his death. Indeed, many of his followers adamantly insist
that he continues to assist and guide them from the aterlife (Korom 2012a).
By choosing to consider oral sources as credible for the purposes of historical documentation, the line between hagiography and history becomes
blurred, leaving only stories and anecdotes.5 However, I think that one could
argue persuasively that “unoicial” history based on legendary occurrences,
rumors, and other such sources normally received with a sense of skepticism
by some can teach us much about why certain individuals are successful
in forming new religious communities when others are not. Hagiography,
from this perspective, thus becomes a legitimate source of information
upon which to draw for sketching the unforgettable careers of charismatic
individuals and saints who eventually come to be regarded as larger than life
itself (see Lifshitz 1994).6
With the exception of one doctoral dissertation (Mauroof 1976) and
a bachelor’s honors thesis (Snyder 2003), virtually nothing academic has
been written about Bawa, a Tamil term for father that is used by his intimates
to refer to him (but see Webb 1994; 1998; 2006; and Korom 2011; 2012a,
2012b). My data, therefore, are derived mostly from primary sources gathered in the course of doing ethnographic ieldwork in both North America
and Sri Lanka; namely, interviews, reminiscences, testimonies, gossip, and
some written correspondence from and between members of what I term
Bawa’s “inner circle,” those people who clustered around him immediately
ater his public ministry gathered steam internationally, most of whom continue being active in the organization founded by their spiritual father.
5. he monumental impetus for studying oral history originally came from Vansina
(1961; 1971). See also the reevaluation in Brown and Roberts 1980. On spoken anecdotes
as a source for Islamic hagiography, see, for example, Millie 2008.
6. he literature on Muslim saints is not as extensive as that on their Christian counterparts, but some representative studies worth mentioning are Kugle 2007, Renard 2008,
and Werbner 2003.
frank Korom | 151
Origins
According to oral history, sometime between 1940 and 1942, a holy
man emerged from the jungles of southeastern Sri Lanka, near the pilgrimage site of Kataragama. He was a non-literate Tamil-speaking Sui belonging
to the Qadari lineage, although his ailiation to the order was quite limited
and shrouded in mystery. Indeed, later in his life he stopped speaking about
himself historically because he insisted that it distracted people from their
quest for God, which he felt was far more important than existential reality. Virtually nothing is known about this individual prior to his emergence
from the southern jungles of Sri Lanka in the 1940s. In fact, the biography
of his life titled he Tree hat Fell to the West (Muhaiyaddeen 2003) is an
edited text compiled by his inner circle members solely from thousands of
hours of tape recordings of his sermons archived in Philadelphia. It is by
no means historical in the conventional sense, since it is based on the sage’s
own reminiscences, which unfold much more in the manner of parables
that oscillate constantly between objective and subjective reality, outer and
inner states of being.7
What we do know with any certainty, however, is that ater many years
of meditation in solitude at various locations throughout the southern and
central provinces of the island he eventually settled in the northern Tamilspeaking region known as Jafna in approximately 1942. It was from there
that he ministered to whomever required his services from the home of an
aluent family of his patrons. Most of his clientele were initially impoverished low-caste Hindus, but Christians and Buddhists visited him on occasion as well. Curiously, very few Muslims seem to have gathered around him
during this formative period. At this early stage of his career, he was more
of a generic holy man who eschewed labels, catering, as he did, to anyone
who required his services. It would only be later that titles came to play a
more important role in identifying him and his religious ailiation. As one
commentator states, Bawa’s Suism was “recognizable as Islamic only in its
terminology” (Chittick 1995). While this statement could be contested
on many grounds, the fact is that most of those in Jafna who required his
7. It is almost certain that Bawa was not born in Sri Lanka, yet the dates concerning his
arrival there are by no means clear. See Korom 2011.
152 | Of Shamans and Sufis
services to cure psychological and physiological illnesses were not Muslims. hey therefore tended to use their own labels for him, as he himself
acknowledged on many occasions (Korom 2012a; 2012b).8
In 1952, he had acquired a dilapidated Dutch warehouse in Jafna, which
he converted into a religious commune that still exists today. A pious
matron who is a former school teacher and personal associate of Bawa during his lifetime maintains the premises today, as she has done ever since her
spiritual mentor went abroad.9 Like many South Asian Sui holy men before
him (see, for example, Eaton 1993, 194–304), Bawa acquired parcels of land
nearby, which he cleared and then farmed to feed the throngs of people who
sought him out regularly. By that time, he was already known as Guru Bawa
among his Hindu followers, a father igure equated with lack of ego, mind,
and creed, what his Muslim admirers would later refer to as the prototypical
“perfect man.” As his fame as a healer, exorcist, and counselor spread, urban
Muslim intellectuals and heosophists, the latter of whom recognized no
boundaries between religions, eventually sought out the saint and occasionally brought him to the capital city, which inspired them to establish the
Serendib Sui Study Circle (sssc) in 1962.10
he story of Bawa’s discovery is worth recounting in brief because it has
now become the stuf of legend among his global group of followers. he
only published account (Mauroof 1976, 40f.), corroborated by a variety of
oral sources, states that two brothers from Nallur, a suburb of Jafna town,
took vows to conduct annual walking pilgrimages to the sacred precincts of
Kataragama in the south from their home in the north. While on their way
there, the two brothers spotted Bawa in the jungle, where he appeared to
8. Most of the Jaffna Muslims with whom I spoke were barely familiar with him,
although one admitted to me that Bawa was a “friend of God,” a special way of saying that
he was a saint.
9. A relative of one of Bawa’s Sri Lankan Hindu followers who now resides in Philadelphia assists her in the daily maintenance of the site. Out of devotion to her teacher, the
woman in question even refused to abandon the location during the devastating civil war
between government forces and Tamil rebels. he building’s outer walls are still covered
with bullet holes. Witnessing the destruction of many buildings surrounding the commune, Bawa’s followers claim it was his miraculous protection that kept the structure safe
during that tumultuous period.
10. he sssc was oicially incorporated by the Sri Lankan parliament on 27 November
1974 for the purpose of promoting Bawa’s brand of Suism.
frank Korom | 153
them from behind a tree. he irst contact was a brief sighting, without communication. he second instance a year later was also just visual, but the
third time they spoke with some diiculty. he reason for the diiculty in
communication was that Bawa apparently spoke a diferent dialect of Tamil,
one that they could not quite understand.11 Ater spending some time with
the sage, they invited him to return to Jafna with them, but he declined,
telling them he would arrive there forty days later. According to oral testimony, he found his way to their home without directions, which some note
as a sign of his omniscience.12
Stories such as the one included below concerning his miraculous powers
began spreading shortly ater his arrival. At irst, his amazing deeds spread
from house to house, then village to village, until a steady stream of people began visiting Bawa at his home for a variety of purposes. One printed
account will suice for my purposes here:
A few months ater Bawa had come to their [the two brothers’ and their sister’s] household, she and a younger sister decided to go to a local temple.
Due to the commotion caused in the household by the visiting swami, they
had not been to the temple for a long time. Also, they knew that the swami
did not like their previous swamis and would disapprove of their visit to
the temple. However, one day when the swami was resting in the aternoon
they both donned their best clothes, gathered lowers to ofer the local deity
(the Lord Kandasamy), and went to the temple. When they went inside the
temple, however, in the place where the igure of Kandasamy stood, all they
could “see” was their swami whom they had let, apparently sleeping, in their
house. They were terrified by the experience, and immediately returned
home to their swami.
(Mauroof 1976, 42)13
11. he devout say that it was a medieval dialect (hence, claims to his antiquity) heavily
inluenced by Arabic called Arwi, which is no longer intelligible to modern speakers of
Tamil. he miscommunication was more than likely, however, simply a matter of dialectal
diference, since the Tamil spoken in southern India (where Bawa was probably born) is
quite distinct from the numerous varieties of the same language spoken in Sri Lanka. On
Arwi, see Shu’ayb 1993.
12. his is one of the signs of his superhuman powers, along with loral scent emanation,
abstention from food, walking on air, charismatic healing, and raising the dead, all of which
are considered signs of Muslim sainthood. See Ernst 1997, 58–80.
13. “Swami” is an alternative term used for Bawa by his Hindu devotees in Jafna. It has
a wide semantic range encompassing the terms “father,” “lord,” “religious teacher,” and even
“deity.”
154 | Of Shamans and Sufis
Such stories were common in the early days of Bawa’s ministry.14 In Jafna,
they compelled people to avail themselves of his godly powers. Some came
to seek advice about everyday economic matters such as land grabs or social
injustices such as caste or religious discrimination. But demonically possessed people also regularly visited him to be exorcised violently with a
schoolmaster’s cane that Bawa used to beat the demons out of the alicted
patients.15 According to one eyewitness who is a retired physician, Bawa
would trap the evil spirits in jars as they departed the skulls of patients.
He would then seal and bury them in the sands of the nearby beach. He
also administered herbal remedies to chronically ill people, many of whom
claim to have been miraculously cured by him. Although the majority came
to him for pragmatic reasons, a few came to seek knowledge about more
abstract religious matters.
Ater approximately a decade, Bawa managed to secure the warehouse
mentioned above near the beach in Jafna town where he resided with the
woman whose brothers had discovered him. She loyally tended to his needs,
cooked for the throng of people, and cleaned up ater the mass of spectators
who came regularly to catch glimpses of the holy man. he brothers also
spent many hours at the newly founded commune as Bawa’s apprentices.
he elder became a masterful herbal healer, while the younger specialized
in psychic disorders. By 1966, Bawa had regular employees consisting of a
scribe, a translator, and a chaufeur who drove his car. He also had secured
land where he established three farms to grow rice, vegetables, and coconuts
respectively.
By this time, Bawa had already been visiting an elite group of his followers in other towns such as Matale and Colombo located in the central and
western provinces, respectively. hese urban dwellers were not of the typical
14. hey continue to abound today as well, providing an important vehicle for remembering the founding teacher. On the constructive role of memory in the contemporary Fellowship, see Korom 2012a.
15. his is one of the phenomena that virtually all of Bawa’s American followers who
accompanied him to Sri Lanka commented on as being the most horriic and surprising
experiences they had. Many became noticeably depressed on seeing their beloved and passive teacher angrily striking crazed villagers. It is reported by the current president of the
sssc that Bawa abandoned caning when one person he struck in Colombo threatened to
attack him, ater which Bawa desisted from using the stick in favor of more nonviolent
forms of coaxing and persuasion to talk the demon out of the possessed individual.
frank Korom | 155
sort who visited Bawa at the commune. Instead, they were mostly prosperous, well-educated Muslims from both the Moor and Malay communities.16
here were also some heosophical Buddhists among these urban patrons.
Due to their intellectual inclinations, this new aluent class of patrons were
less focused on healing and litigation and more on philosophical issues.
Unlike the impoverished Hindu villagers who called him swami or guru,
these new Muslim followers identified Bawa as a Sufi, a Muslim mystic
deserving the exalted title shaykh. It was the group of Muslim intellectuals
in Colombo that ultimately formed the aforementioned Serendib Sui Study
Circle, which still operates today, holding monthly occasions for recitation,
followed by the distribution of free vegetarian food to all in attendance.17 For
some years, then, Bawa moved back and forth from Jafna to Colombo and
Kandy, until his life was radically altered in 1969 by a letter he received from
a confused young woman in the United States.
The Tree that Fell to the West
Halfway around the world, an American female mystic met a Sri
Lankan Moor in 1969. he Moor was a doctoral candidate at a university in
Philadelphia at the time they met. He told her numerous tales about fabulous encounters with his spiritual teacher back in what was then known as
Ceylon. he awesome stories he told her about his teacher’s perennial teachings free from the strictures of organized religion were enough to convince
her that contact with the exotic wise man could resolve the confusion she
was experiencing.18 he young woman told the student about an experi16. On the complicated reasons for the use of the term Moor, see McGilvray 1998. For
the Malays as being part of the Muslim mosaic of Sri Lanka, see Effendi 1982.
17. Weekly meetings are also held on Sunday mornings, during which recorded tapes
of Bawa’s speeches are played, then discussed by the group. hese weekly meetings, however, are much smaller than the monthly recitation sessions, most likely because no food is
served ater the weekly meetings.
18. In fact, the original sign in the commune, now gone and replaced by another, less
explicit, one, pointed out the non-sectarian nature of the establishment. In addition, the
sign also demanded conidentiality in terms of what went on within the walls of the institution as well as silent petitioning of requests, which would be telepathically understood
by the master (see Mauroof 1976, 48). Moreover, Bawa’s earliest publications emphasized
156 | Of Shamans and Sufis
ence she had in 1963 during which she fell into a mystical trance. It was in
the city of New Orleans during the month of November that this recently
married woman had her baling experience. As she recalled to me in 2006,
“Everything disappeared, as if I was hurdling through darkness. I was terriied, then everything remained bliss, and it lasted for hours.” Her husband
thought she was ill and had fainted, but then she woke up suddenly, trying
desperately to igure out what it all meant. Years later, she wrote the following in an appendix to one of Bawa’s books:
I was alone, standing still in a detached mood. hings became visually very
clear. Then everything seemed to be made up of dark colored dots, all in
silence. hen it all disappeared. Everything. No sight, no sound, no smell,
no touch, no body, nothing. hen through another kind of sight, seen as if
looking at a movie, scenes appeared. It turned out that whatever was wished
to be seen could be seen. hings in back of me, things miles away, whatever
occurred to one to see, appeared.
(Muhaiyaddeen 1972, 249)
A voiceless voice then spoke to her intuitively:
At some point, there began an awareness of a “silent” voice explaining what
was taking place. As the voice spoke, whatever it said became actuality. If
it said something, that was what existed at that moment. Nothing else was,
except the voice and the state that it explained. It was speaking very quickly,
and many things simply can not [sic] be remembered.
(Muhaiyaddeen 1972, 249)
Recounting as if being disembodied, lacking any ego whatsoever, she intuits
the voice speaking to her, saying, “here is no time or space. hey are One…
‘THERE IS ONLY ONE’… he next thing ‘I’ knew, I was again aware of the
world of form and was illed with an intoxication of immense joy” (Muhaiyaddeen 1972, 249).19
Because the experience was inefable, the woman in question has diiculty
articulating what she felt even today. “It is not of language or concepts,” she
writes. “It is not possible to describe this One” (Muhaiyaddeen 1972, 250).
the universal nature of his teachings, which could not easily it into categorical religious
denominations.
19. he emphases are in the original text. Notice that she places the irst person pronoun in quotation marks, which suggests that the experience forced her to question the
very notion of self.
frank Korom | 157
At irst, she could not understand what had happened, so she turned irst to
Jesus. She prayed to him to send someone to explain her experience to her:
As time went by, it [her experience] became covered over by the problems
the world and ourselves give us. But from that moment on, something inside
cried, ‘Please come! Please come!’ After that the world was a very empty
place. I still did stupid things. I still do. And I knew that I did not understand
what had been experienced, but I did at some point realize that I had to ind
my Guru. I cried for release and I cried for my Guru.
(Muhaiyaddeen 1972, 250)
It took her eight more years of confused searching to ind the person to
answer her many questions about the disturbing experience she had years
earlier in balmy New Orleans.
While still in Louisiana, her marriage crumbled. She eventually divorced
and moved north to Philadelphia where an acquaintance told her about
a man who knew a Sri Lankan in West Philadelphia who, in turn, knew a
Sui teacher in his native land. So one day she went to the aforementioned
graduate student’s apartment, knocked on his door, and asked for his teacher’s address. he teacher was none other than Guru Bawa. She wrote him a
letter of introduction requesting his spiritual guidance on 21 October 1969.
He responded to her query on 11 November 1969. Referring to her as “sister,” he replied that he would be happy to help. She then responded on 24
May 1970 by writing that Bawa is “awesome,” and her only determination
was for her to go there to be with him. In the same letter she also mentions
that her father was preparing to go of to Vietnam for a second tour of war
duty, which was causing her mother great anxiety. She later told me that this
made her even more anxious than she already was.
In this way, she began corresponding with Bawa, whose scribe and translator would compose responses based on the teacher’s dictation. A lengthy
period of correspondence followed between 1969 and 1971. During this
period, she came to realize that it would be unrealistic for her to abandon
everything to move to Sri Lanka to be with him, yet spiritual counseling
via correspondence was insufficient to solve her mental agony. She then
decided to gather like-minded spiritual seekers around her to make the necessary preparations for Bawa and his entourage to visit Philadelphia. Hence,
in early 1971, she and her newly formed “fellowship” made inal preparations to bring him to Philadelphia. To secure a visa, she and a small core of
158 | Of Shamans and Sufis
his irst admirers informally founded the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship
shortly before his arrival on 11 October 1971.
he small group of people comprising the original Fellowship met the
holy man’s group at the airport, ater which they all moved into a row home
in West Philadelphia. Bawa gave discourses there every evening, followed by
free vegetarian food cooked in the home’s kitchen by him and his followers.
By the fall of 1972 the group had drawn up a inal charter for the organization, in which Bawa mandated three presidents, three secretaries, and three
treasurers, all of whom are still among the sixteen members of the executive
committee that assumed control of the organization ater the death of the
founder. Bawa’s intention, according to those selected to lead, was to distribute corporate power in such a way that no single person could make decisions for the entire group.20
Known for his regular participation in interfaith dialogues, his infectious
charisma, and rumors of transcendental powers including the healing touch
drew in more and more people until the house could no longer accommodate the entire group. he Fellowship gradually grew large and prosperous
enough to purchase a former Jewish community center on the outskirts of
the city in 1973 that was converted by them into a communal house where
Bawa’s “American family” could reside comfortably.21 he Fellowship was
oicially registered as a not-for-proit organization in 1974, with the goal
of discovering the meaning of life and humankind’s purpose on earth. his
event marks the third phase of the movement’s institutionalization, the irst
being the establishment of his commune in northern Sri Lanka and the second being the founding of the Serendib Sui Study Circle in Colombo. What
was still lacking in the sociological sense was a “church,” a central place of
worship, contemplation, and prayer to which all members would have access.
A few years later, to ill the need for a place of prayer, Bawa and his “children” began building a mosque on the Fellowship grounds that was com20. However, members of the Fellowship who are not in leadership positions oten complain about being excluded from decision-making processes and about the noticeable rise
in bureaucratization, which Weber (1947, 324–91) says is inevitable as a new religion takes
root and establishes an economic base. he laity thus feels alienated in the classical Marxist sense at times, which has, in some extreme cases, led to members leaving this tight-knit
group.
21. he residence came to be known colloquially as the Ship, an apt metaphor for the
journey on which they all were about to embark.
frank Korom | 159
pleted and dedicated in May of 1984. In addition to providing a gathering
place for Bawa’s American convert family, it now serves as a multiethnic
religious and educational center for immigrant Muslims.22 From the time
he arrived in Philadelphia until his death on 8 December 1986, Guru Bawa
led a transnational existence, moving back and forth between his original
homeland in South Asia and his newly constructed mosque in Philadelphia.
During his iteen years in the United States, he returned to Sri Lanka four
times, always bringing along a retinue of his American “family” members
with him.23 During the second trip back, he and forty-one of his American
children built what he called God House in Mankumban, near the site of
his original commune. his sanctuary has survived the incessant civil war
that has plagued that portion of the island in recent decades unscathed, yet
another sign of Bawa’s miraculous powers, according to his adherents.24
During his fourth and last trip, he fell into a coma and preparations for
his burial were being made when, as eyewitnesses told me, he suddenly
awoke and proclaimed that the angel of death had come to take him away,
but he pleaded for more time to complete his mission on earth. Purportedly
granted pardon by the angel, Bawa returned to Philadelphia for the last time
to spend the remainder of his years preparing for his ultimate departure.
Despite his declining health, inner circle members claim that he embodied
and emanated eternal youth, yet he died surrounded by his beloved children
in the room of the Fellowship house where he spent most of his time ater
22. Philadelphia has quite a signiicant Muslim population consisting mostly of immigrant Muslims, but some are also African-Americans who converted to Islam during the
Black Power movement. Only a few of Bawa’s adherents, however, are African-American,
one of which holds a prominent position within the administrative ranks of the Fellowship.
he Fellowship mosque was the irst freestanding one in the city, although others existed
in the form of converted storefront ones. Many who attend Friday prayers there are not
particularly interested in Bawa or his teachings, but attend for social reasons; that is, to pray
together, ater which a communal meal is served. Others also bring their children there
on Sundays to study Arabic in the attached madrasa stafed by Fellowship members. On
African-American Muslims in Philadelphia, see McCloud 1996. On issues confronted by
African-American Muslims in general, see Curtis 2007.
23. he dates of the four trips are May 1972–February 1973; February 1974–July 1975;
November 1976–August 1978; and December 1980–November 1982.
24. he site is currently experiencing a revival, now that hostilities have ceased. Rituals
are conducted and meals served there weekly on Fridays, and a guest house built on the
compound’s grounds remains open to welcome Bawa’s children from abroad.
160 | Of Shamans and Sufis
his inal trip to Sri Lanka.25 His body was ritually prepared for burial at the
Fellowship house, ater which it was transported for burial to East Fallowield, a small Christian agricultural community located approximately forty
miles outside of Philadelphia.26 he land was purchased by the Fellowship
years earlier in 1973 on Bawa’s orders. He had instructed them to purchase
the 100-acre parcel of land to serve as a Muslim cemetery and communal
farm, for he was distressed at how costly it was to carry out a funeral in the
United States. Ater his burial, his followers built a serene shrine for him
over the place where his earthly remains now rest. Over the years since his
passing, the place has become an international pilgrimage site and place of
contemplation for visitors from North America and South Asia.27 It is at this
site that Bawa’s memory is kept actively alive, especially at the time of his
annual death commemoration, during which his life is vividly remembered
through communal prayer, feasting, and socializing.28
25. His movement was somewhat conined during his latter years by the respirator he
wore to assist his breathing. Bawa was a heavy smoker for most of his life, even though he
did not eat or drink, according to many who knew him well. However, many say his respiratory problems were not caused by nicotine but by taking on the burdens of the world.
Bawa acknowledged this himself in one of the letters he sent to the Fellowship founder
before his arrival in the United States. In a letter dated 16 November 1970, he dictated, “the
world will say that it is sickness. But what it is is tiredness that comes from the sufering
in the heart of noble people in this world. It is not sickness. It is a tiredness of the happiness and sadness of those who are noble. You, the children of my liking are the medicine
that changes that tiredness. When your wisdom becomes clear, resonates, and shines, that
clarity becomes the medicine that will change that tiredness. hat, my brother, is what happened here. Other than that, there is no such thing as illness, happiness, or sadness for me.”
26. One person who bathed Bawa’s body prior to burial attests to the fact that the body
showed no signs of decomposition. In fact, it exuded the fragrance of lowers. Even more
surprisingly, he claims that no wrinkles whatsoever were visible on the corpse, or noticeable to the touch.
27. By 1976 the Fellowship boasted ten national and international centers and 7,000
members, and today rough estimates provided by Fellowship oicials suggest that Bawa has
approximately 10,000 “children” worldwide. he group’s directory, however, contains only
1,000 names at most, which suggests that the numbers might be much less than originally
thought.
28. he event on 14 March 2011 marked the twenty-ith anniversary of his passing, a
milestone commemorated with elaborate prayer and feasting, all captured on ilm by a Pakistani ilm crew for broadcasting on television in that nation.
frank Korom | 161
Closing Remarks
Based on oral histories and ethnographic data compiled between
2006 to the present on his transnational ministry, I wish to suggest that this
humble but charismatic Sui preacher from Sri Lanka had to make a conscious transition from the generic guru to the distinctive shaykh to separate
himself from the “guru invasion” that took place in the United States during
the late 1960s and early 1970s, ater the immigration laws had been relaxed
to allow for more Asians to settle on American soil, which allowed them to
establish their own alternative forms of spirituality.29 According to eyewitnesses, Bawa dropped the guru title in 1973 ater witnessing Guru Maharaj
Ji being paraded around the Houston Astrodome as part of his Millennium
73 event, which was aired on television. While Maharaj Ji was being paraded
around in a throne carried on the devoted shoulders of his admirers he
declared himself Lord of the World, a common appellation for the Hindu
deity Krishna.30 In his attempt to establish himself as a legitimate Muslim
teacher, Bawa gradually came to emphasize not an eclectic heosophical
system of thought, as he earlier seemed to stress, but one based on Islamic
law and Sui recitation, which ultimately would lead to mystical gnosis. But
at the same time, he continued to preach in a universal idiom that transcended traditional religious boundaries and relected a perennial attitude
that suggested there is only one God, regardless of what He is called.
In summary, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen staged three “comings” during
his career that loosely correspond to the stages of institutionalization I
described above. he irst is his northern Sri Lankan phase, where he presented himself (or was presented) as a typical Hindu teacher or Sui saint,
29. Ellwood (1994) ably documents this fascinating period in American religious history. Its subsequent consequences are analyzed by Roof 1999. In some interesting ways,
Bawa’s transition from guru to shaykh somewhat parallels the transition Winkelman
(1990; 1992) says the shaman makes to other forms of magico-religious specialization as a
result of changing social and economic circumstances.
30. here is some controversy as to who made the decision to drop the term. His American children, including the prayer leader of the Philadelphia mosque, claim it was Bawa
himself, whereas his Sri Lankan followers claim the Americans made the decision for him.
Rivalries between the Americans and Sri Lankans is not recent, since it goes all the way
back to 1972 when Bawa was scheduled to return to Sri Lanka but postponed due to his
lively reception in Philadelphia. See Mauroof (1976, 29).
162 | Of Shamans and Sufis
characterized primarily by pragmatism (farming, healing, settling disputes,
and so forth). he second phase occurs when he begins to minister to the
urban elite of Colombo and elsewhere on the island. his period is more
philosophical, tapping into the theosophical movement that was well under
way by the 1970s (see Bond 2003), but during which he continued healing
people and performing various sorts of miracles, such as bringing the dead
back to life. he third phase coincides with his arrival in the United States.
Here he is irst understood as the typical perennial mystic, so popular in the
emergent New Age belief system of the seventies, which perpetuates universalism and anti-dogmatism. Eventually, however, he comes to emphasize a
distinct Islamic message that focuses on a fourfold developmental pattern.31
he progression moves from revealed law, which involves discerning right
from wrong and permissible behavior, to phase two, known as the path, on
which the strengthening of determination occurs, to a third stage of truth,
during which communication and union with God begins to occur, leading
inally to gnosis, a more perfected state of union with God that results in a
state of constant remembrance and contemplation that transcends the “four
religions.” Bawa deined these as Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity,
and Islam, each of which correspond to diferent levels of truth and spiritual
development (see Webb 1994).
To appreciate Bawa’s appeal, one must trace his historical development
from his humble local roots to his rise in international fame. When doing
so, one notices movement from a tolerant and non-denominational preacher
toward a more structured founder of a distinct religious lineage maintaining
only tenuous links with a pre-established tradition within Islam. My larger
project aims to flesh out this transformation in order to understand how
Bawa constantly adjusted his teachings to suit the sensibilities of his changing
audiences. his context sensitivity may be a trademark of Bawa’s teachings,
which could very well have been inluenced by the Buddhist notion of skillful
means used to teach at a level comprehensible to the individual student.32
31. he role of Suism in the emergence of New Age spiritual practice is poorly understood. Heelas 1996 and Hanegraaff 1996, two key texts on the New Age, for example,
pay no attention whatsoever to it. It has only been very recently that some good work has
started emerging to address this lacuna. See Wilson 1997.
32. his is another concept that has not really been explored at all by scholars of religion.
While the impact of Hinduism on Buddhism and the impact of Islam on Hinduism have
frank Korom | 163
Because of the transnational character of the movement, the ultimate goal
of the project is to look at the development and low of this spiritual organization from its point of origin in the past to its present state to understand how this unusual and somewhat anomalous individual’s charisma led
to the formation of an idiosyncratic Sui community far removed from the
founder’s point of origin, but that retains religious, social, and economic
ties with the parent organization in Sri Lanka. Moreover, I have here enumerated the stages of institutionalization that occurred as the movement
gathered momentum. As I understand it, we are now in the fourth stage of
institutionalization, during which what Weber would call the routinization
of charisma occurs. It is precisely ater Bawa’s death that the charisma of
oice is established, when Bawa’s selected acolytes now become igures of
authority responsible for maintaining and employing the saint’s charisma
through his privileged oice by creating stricter rules of belief and behavior, strengthening institutional infrastructure, and expanding membership
by disseminating the founder’s teachings through various forms of media,
such as an aggressive publications program and the launching of an oicial
internet site.33
he main question that needs to be asked and ultimately answered is, how
does an unknown recluse from an obscure suburb of a town located on a
small island nation rise to fame and establish himself as a global authority on matters of the soul in a seemingly accidental or coincidental manner
(despite the Fellowship’s claim that nothing happens by chance)? Moreover,
what strategies did Bawa and his “handlers” employ to manage his image
as he moved from Sri Lanka to the United States, allowing him to make
the gradual transition from an eclectic guru to a disciplined and normative
Sui shaykh who emphasized Islamic orthodoxy as a foundational platform
for achieving a diicult-to-achieve mystical state of gnosis in the end? In
answering such questions, one would need to look at the charismatic nature
of Bawa’s career, which is where we notice some striking parallels with the
been studied extensively, virtually nothing exists exploring the inluence that Buddhism
has had on Islam, or vice versa, but see Elverskog 2010 and Scott 1995. On upāya (skillful means), see Pye 2003.
33. In addition to the sources listed in my bibliography at the end of this chapter, a variety of books published by the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship Press are easily accessible on
the group’s website. See http://www.bmfstore.com/Scripts/default.asp.
164 | Of Shamans and Sufis
shaman igure, as I discussed at the outset. To begin with, Bawa spent many
years in isolation, which corresponds to the shaman’s “solitary quest” outlined by Winkelman (1990). It was during this solitary quest that Bawa
began to practice other shamanic techniques mentioned above, such as auditory driving (chanting & singing), fasting (abstaining from food altogether),
and austerity (living in caves and jungles without personal belongings).
It is also said that Bawa practiced sleep deprivation. he way that it was
explained to me was that when he was lying down at night practicing recitation, he would not actually sleep, but fall into deep trance, during which
soul light would occur. As Bawa described it, he would travel to other times
and places to do “God’s work.” Bawa’s personal physician oten referred to
him as being quite sickly. Bawa attributed this sickness not to smoking,
which he was prone to do, or fasting, which further amazed everyone who
knew him well, but to taking on the illnesses of others in order to heal them.
By absorbing their pain, he became physically weak. During his last trip to
Sri Lanka, he explained his collapse into unconsciousness as precisely one
such case. He claims that he was helping four people who were in the process of dying to cross over from life to death, which resulted in him displaying symptoms of his own death. Once his task was complete, he was able to
return to full consciousness to explain his ordeal to eyewitnesses.
Bawa, however, was a reluctant prophet, in the sense that he hesitated at
each major step in his career. It took him a few years to make the commitment to begin his formal ministry in Jafna, then it took him many more
to spread out to Colombo. It is said that when Bawa was invited to the
capital to found the Serendib Sui Study Circle, he balked, stating that he
feared he was a tree upon which too many people would perch. Interestingly, his correspondence from Colombo to Philadelphia indicates that he
was eager to leave the island for foreign terrain. It is not clear why, but
perhaps he was aware of the impending bloodshed that would occur once
ethnic conlict and violence led to civil war.34 One thing is certain, though.
It took a certain amount of recruitment and cajoling by interested parties
to convince Bawa to make the moves that he did. heir motivations, no
doubt, were based on self-interest arising out of their observations of this
unique individual.
34. His followers claim that Bawa predicted the war long before it began, and that he
also claimed that Jafna would rise like a jewel in the ocean, once the hostilities ceased.
frank Korom | 165
What the two Tamil brothers from Jaffna saw in Bawa was a man of
mystery subject to involuntary visions and prone to ecstatic trance states
in which he would perform astral projection. The selection of shamans,
according to Winkelman and others, similarly involves recruiting individuals who show signs of illness, involuntary visions, possession, etc. Although
each case of such selection and appointment would require more in-depth
analysis, it is clear that similar, if not completely parallel, phenomena are
occurring. Suis are not shamans and shamans are not Suis, yet something
is shared between them, namely a penchant for healing that is acquired
through unusual means that some might mistakenly identify as psychopathological. Ater all, involuntary ecstasy is something reported from all
strata of society throughout the world, be it the shaman of a hunting and
gathering band or the ecstatic its of a New Age channeler.35
he quick skeletal outline that I have provided in conclusion should provide some tantalizing beginnings for thinking about a how certain Suis act
like shamans, and by doing so how it aids their careers. Just as Winkelman
suggests that shamans transform into other sorts of healers as social structure changes, so too does Bawa transform himself into diferent types of
spiritual practitioners as his career evolves over time. By providing some
tentative beginnings to understanding the dynamic career of one extraordinary individual, I hope that this chapter will contribute to larger questions
of interest to social scientists and humanists alike concerning how a marginal “cult” evolves into a “sect,” then ultimately a “church” as it temporally
ages and doctrinally matures, as well as how the work of a shaman becomes
transformed into other sorts of spiritual specialization as time continues to
move forward.
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